Word of Life

A monthly phrase put into practice around the world

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What’s the Focolare Word of Life?

What does the Gospel say we should do when we are annoyed, when we are dealing with a difficult person, when we are tired, or meeting someone for the first time? Focolare emphasizes living the Gospel in all of life’s situations. The words of Scripture can become an “instruction manual” for living, or simply “words of life.”

The Focolare Word of Life is a phrase chosen each month and shared around the world that we’re all invited to live by. The accompanying commentary is translated into some 90 different languages and dialects, reaching millions worldwide through print, radio, TV and other media. There are special versions for children and teens as well.

Chiara Lubich explained how the Word of Life began. “World War II was still raging. Every time the air-raid siren sounded, the only thing that my friends and I would take into the shelter with us was one small book: the Gospel.

“We opened it and, as we read, the words were lit up as if they had a candle beneath them, even though we already knew them quite well. But now they inflamed our hearts and urged us to put them into practice immediately. We were attracted to them all and tried to live them one after another.

“We read for example, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Mt 19:19). Our neighbor. Where was our neighbor? There, next to us in all the people who had been hurt by the war, wounded, without clothes, without houses, hungry and thirsty. We immediately dedicated ourselves to them in many ways.”

Chiara and her close friends began to live one phrase from the Gospel at a time. Then they shared their experiences of how it went, helping one another and growing closer along the way.

This experience led them to realize that not only can we study the word of God, discuss it, memorize it and pray over it, but most important of all, we can live it and share our experiences of doing so. This sharing can be a barometer of how well we are really living. We also learn from one another about the many different ways that the Word of Life can be lived each day.

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